Costa Rican wood turning

[Olaf Vogel]

I was fortunate enough to spend the last couple of weeks exploring Costa Rica (highly recommended).
While travelling around Mount Arenal, I came across a fairly large woodworking shop, so I had to stop and check it out.

The Costa Rican's have an enviable selection of gorgeous woods to work with: purpleheart, Ipe, teak and cocobolo, among others.
This shop did mostly wood turnings up 24" dia, all turned green, and carvings, up to 7 ft tall. I figured a couple of pics might be entertaining.

What struck me was this wasn't a high tech shop...note the "large" bowl lathe in the far background. But they had some good backyard innovation....and makes me wonder how much stuff I could do without. :)

Olaf

[Jim Burr]

My wife and I spend a substantial amount of time in Jaco and Puntarenas via San Jose and Heredia. There is hardly a better place to spend a week/month on the planet!! Not only is the coffee and gallo pinto amazing, but it is the most relaxing place in the Americas. Next time, we'll explore the wood!

[Marty Eargle]

Beautiful woods and turnings! I'm jealous of a nice, wide open shop...but I feel like I may have a change of heart in the middle of summer. Glad you got to go on such an adventure...hope I get that opportunity one day.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Those are some beautiful turnings and wood.

[Steve Vaughan]

Great pictures! I, too, have had the opportunity to visit several times and yup, it's highly recommended. And, I've visited a woodworking shop similar to this one. Love the woods there and have been fortunate to bring wood back that I've come across and make a few bowls and platters. You're right too about what we might could do without. I mean, looking at your pics, I'm wondering where's the 4-jaw chucks, and the bowl gouges of various sizes, and where's the bucket of DNA and little bottles of CA. And just what in the world is that monkey wrench for? Why, I don't even see a dust collector anywhere. I really, really love how simple they do stuff down there. They just have a knack for git-r-done!

[Jamie Donaldson]

This is a typical journey of discovery experience, and opens our eyes and minds to the wealth of tools and machines at our fingertips. I have seen similar scenes in Central and S. America, as well as Asian countries.

[Olaf Vogel]

Not sure if you noticed (its not that obvious) but in the background of the last pic is the "heavy duty" double ended bowl lathe.

aka a truck axle on concrete blocks. The differential was cut away for a belt that's electric motor powered.
I got a good chuckle out of that one.

Low tech, but obviously works well. Good for about 300,000 km. Not sure how many bowls that is....

[Nathan Hawkes]

I was just going to mention the axle! WOW!!! Necessity is the mother of invention. Or, if you want a tool, you better make one!!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Pretty cool! Bet it was a lot of fun checking everything out!

[Russell Eaton]

Olaf thanks for the pictures. Oh yea and the reality check. +1 on what could we do without?

[Jon McElwain]

Perspective is everything! I visited a wood shop in Nicaragua a few years ago. They had a wooden lathe made with rough sawn 2x12 ways. The tailstock would be brought up to the end of a spindle and they hung an old burned out electric motor from the bottom of the tailstock to hold it in place. The tool rest was a piece of wood with some angle iron over the top. The spindle was belt driven and the motor hung from some hinges. Their table saw was also made from wood and spare parts.

They made some beautiful carvings, chairs, tables, and other furniture. The tables and chairs all had turned legs, and there was pile of turned table legs all ready to go. Oh, and they used mostly rosewood and mahogany.

Beautiful bowls in those photos. Any idea what they were using for a finish? I found that quality finishes is one area where some of the woodwork from third world countries suffers.

[Steve Mawson]

I have told my wife we need to go there sometime. Are the woodturners as friendly there as they are here? I can see that a shop like that would never work in the US, no belt guards, areas laid out in yellow paint, wood stacked too high, OSHA would put us out of business quick here.

[Olaf Vogel]

They did very nice work and have awesome material to work with
But as you mentioned, the finishes were generally not great. Some were heavy polyurethane looking.
There was certainly no spray booth and a lot of sawdust blowing around.

Their products seemed to be tailored to different purchasers: small portable stuff for tourists to take home on plane. Large pieces for ex-pats and local businesses (I can't think of anyone else who would buy a 400 lbs, 7' fall statue)
24" bowls were selling for US$100, large statues $500. Sounds really cheap in North America, but it could be very hard to sell for more without wrapping a very nice store around the products.

Safety features? none.
Forget about dust extraction, its in the wind.
I was wondering what you do if that huge axle shakes off the blocks. Jump, I guess...
The whole shop was just a roof and no sides.

The guys were nice, let me look around. But no one there spoke any English and unfortunately, my Spanish is limited to "Dos cerveza, por favor", which I practiced a lot. :)

[Steve Vaughan]

Something else tourists don't take into consideration when they buy that stuff is the change in humidity. Depending on what is bought, it could easily end up 'having been' a really nice piece. I saw a really nice bowl set someone bought on one of my trips and a few weeks later - uh-oh - warped, cracked, split.
The place I visited apparently made lots of pieces that they would ship to your home. That was lots of years ago when I saw that, no telling what that would cost nowadays...maybe some of them have some sort of account with a shipper that makes it affordable. I saw one place that had designed a chair that came apart in order to fit in luggage. Very neat idea and they sold lots of them. Hopefully heading to Panama this summer but I'm good for all us to get a group and head down to CR! When ya wanna leave???